TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Jay Cost:

Was there an alternative approach the President could have taken? I think so. Such a tactic would have acknowledged the sizeable McCain bloc. McCain won 22 states, making his coalition a politically potent minority. Obama should have governed in light of this. I don’t mean in hock to it. He didn’t have to make Sarah Palin his domestic policy advisor, but he should have ignored the hagiographers who were quick to declare him the next FDR. These flatterers always manifest themselves anytime a new Democrat comes to the White House, and they are of very little help for Democratic Presidents who actually want to be great.

What he should have done instead was disarm his opponents. If he had built initial policy proposals from the middle, he could have wooed the moderate flank of the Republican party, marginalized the conservatives, and alleviated the concerns of those gettable voters in the South and the Midwest. This is precisely what Bill Clinton did between 1995 and 2000, and it is what the President’s promises of “post-partisanship” suggested.

In January 2008, that’s precisely how I hoped Obama would govern: like a post-1994 Bill Clinton. I had reason to, despite my fears; Obama’s “post-partisan” politics rhetoric and more moderate healthcare reform proposal (during the election, he adamantly opposed the individual mandate) all at least signaled he could try to unite non-partisans across the political spectrum to work together.

As Cost argues, this would have been a powerful strategy for Obama. If, from the beginning of the administration, he governed as a moderate, he would have split the Republican party in two. Moderates would support many of his initiatives and avoid stinging criticism on those they did not not because they saw him as a reasonable man. The party’s strong opposition wouldn’t exist. And more importantly, independents would still support his administration. In this alternate history, Democrats would be looking forward to a successful midterm election this fall.

Of course, that never happened. Rather than honor what he said during his campaign, he decided to use his election for all it was worth. He lost the respect of non-partisan conservatives and, most damagingly, of independents.